Further cracks in a united front to tackle an energy crisis in Europe have arisen Thursday, with Spain, Portugal and Greece rejecting the bloc’s plan to reduce natural gas consumption by 15% between this August and next Spring. Just hours after a dire warning by IEA chief Fatih Birol that Europe would need a 20% cut in consumption to make winter tolerable, officials in Madrid and Lison said they would not support the 15% initiative in the face of a potential Russian gas cutoff. According to both Spain and Portugal, mandatory reductions are unfair, particularly considering that both countries use far less Russian gas than other European Union member states. “We will defend European values, but we won’t accept a sacrifice regarding an issue that we have not even been allowed to give our opinion on,” Spain’s Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera said, as reported by the Associated Press […]